03/09/2011

Why the Private Cloud is a Lie and other Myths of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of essential characteristics, deployment models, and various service models.

Cloud Definition: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

There are five key features that the cloud must provide:

On-demand self-service

Resource pooling

Network access

Scale Up/Down - on demand

Measured Service (e.g. "Chargebacks")

One of the nice things about the Public Cloud (through vendors such as Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, etc.) is that market demand doesn't lie and it's much more difficult to obfuscate features. Inside an organization, however, you typically only have one choice - what is given to you by your Operations team. Some Operations teams are afraid of the Cloud and will use a bunch of technical nonsense - either intentionally or through ignorance - about how they're employing a Private Cloud.

Before I cover the Private Cloud myths, reset your understanding of "The Cloud" and think of it more as "Utility Computing". Here are the myths that I hear articulated by, seemingly, intelligent people.

Myth #1: "I'm hosting my instance so we're on on the 'Cloud'"

Nope. Simply hosting software or instances on a remote machine isn't Cloud Computing. It's cool, but it doesn't account for an on-demand, self-service process along with other features. Hosting is a part of Cloud Computing, but it's not the only thing.

Myth #3: "Most of our provisioning is automated, but, of course, our engineers do need to run the automated scripts that provision the environment"

If you aren't able to launch and terminate instances/software on demand within minutes without assistance, you're not using "The Cloud". If a human is required for any of the provisioning (other than filling out a form/clicking a button, etc.), you don't have a private cloud – as it's not on demand. See There's a big difference between automated and automatic

Myth #4: "We've got a cloud, with the exception of metering; It's too difficult to assess on a continuous basis and we like to keep that information private."

If Non-Operations team members have no idea the costs of virtual instances or the purpose of these instances in real time or near real time, (e.g. "Chargebacks"), it’s not a Cloud.

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So, actually, the Private Cloud isn't a lie, it's just misused so often in our buzzword-laden industry, that it loses its meaning. The distinction is important because organizations won't realize the benefits of using "The Cloud" if they don't have features such as on-demand self service, scaling the number and size of instances up and down - on demand, resource pooling, etc. Are you in an organization that lies about its use of the Cloud?

Interesting, Chris. Please explain what you mean when you say the Cloud is anti-internal Operations. Do you mean because it could put Operations personnel out of a job or they follow different rules or something else?

Well, I’m an infrastructure and ops guy. I see Cloud-oriented blog posts titled “Fire your 1990's Style Operations Team" and it is obvious that it’s not meant for me. Recently the founder of MuleSoft went so far as to publicly ponder what his sysadmins will do now that we live in this Age of Cloud Computing in his SysAdmins, R.I.P. post. I've read from many developers writing of their pleasure working with the cloud simply because they no longer needed to interact with their ops teams. I believe there is even a term for it: NoOps.

Personally, I don’t believe that Cloud Computing will destroy the careers of operations people--someone needs to manage this stuff and the Cloud doesn’t eliminate calls to the help desk or trouble tickets. I don’t think that operations folks in general are change averse or afraid of the process changes that may occur with the rollout of a private cloud. I think Operations people are leery of anything that makes them even more invisible to their business and development partners and the language of cloud-oriented blog posts, marketing literature, and the like do little to dispel those impressions.

This is a great response, Chris. Thanks! Actually, I think that "Fire your 1990s style Operations team" blog posts might be meant for you because, based on your response, I suspect that you're not a 1990s style engineer (i.e. "We've never tried that before...")

At my company, we pair Infrastructure/Ops engineers with Software engineers in our solutions. I don't want to hire the person who says "the cloud is evil (or implies it through clever technical obfuscation)". Likewise, I don't want the person who says "what will the Sys Admins do now in this age of Cloud Computing...?", because, I'm in agreement with you, you need this Systems expertise and the Cloud will not destroy the careers of progressive engineers like I imagine you are. If an Operations engineer doesn't appreciate the power that Cloud Computing can bring, I must admit, I don't feel like they're open minded and definitely can't see the writing on the wall. Furthermore, Cloud Computing will destroy the (at least, the interesting) careers of those who refuse to adapt and learn about it - this goes for Developers and Systems Engineers.